News Sea Change Coder Dojo Challenge

The Sea Change game design challenge is open to Galway (Ireland) and Lund (Sweden) CoderDojo members aged 10-18. The challenge is being organised by NUI Galway as part of their contribution to a European project called “Sea Change” which aims to establish a fundamental “Sea Change” in the way European citizens view their relationship with the sea.  The challenge is to use the fun and popularity of designing and playing tech games to raise awareness of Marine issues like the need to protect cold-water coral reefs, how we can begin to address the scourge of micro-plastics, and how we can maintain healthy oceans and seas, for ourselves, for the animals that live in them, and ultimately for the planet.

You and your team can use your CoderDojos and mentors to develop your games. The game design will be reviewed by a panel of experts and judged on ‘best concept’ and ‘ease of use’.  The winning game will be included in an iBook about cold water corals that will be presented as a teaching resource to secondary schools and the name of the winning team will be inscribed on a special Sea Change Coder Dojo Challenge plaque.  There will also be cash prizes for the top 2 teams in each country: first prize: 500€; second prize: 250€.

At the launch, two scientists will talked about their work on corals, and plastics in our ocean, to provide ideas for game development.  Other resources are available (newsletters, poster, fact sheet, ocean literacy booklet, videos) on the project website: www.seachangeproject.eu.

Dr Veronica McCauley from the School of Education, NUI Galway and Dr Anthony Grehan, Earth and Ocean Sciences, School of Natural Science, gave an interview about the launch on the Keith Finnegan Show.  It's available on their podcast:  http://galwaybayfm.ie/the-keith-finnegan-show-thursday-february-25th/ from 01:01:57.

Competition Time-Table

Registration by: 26 March, 2016

Submission by: 14 May, 2016

Winners announced: 11 June, 2016